As I stepped into a new season of ministry, my team and I launched an evangelism initiative. Our goal was to renew a passion among our student leaders to share their faith. What followed was extraordinary. Over time, we realized we needed a simple, repeatable process for sharing the gospel and clear principles for embedding that process into the culture of our ministry. One of my ministry mentors, Ernie Bonnoitt, taught me a simple process for evangelism: pray, invest, share, read and establish.
The Process: Five Simple Steps
- Pray: BeginwithDependence
Evangelism starts with prayer. Ministry activity without relational intimacy is possible. That reality drove us to dependence.
From Matthew 9:35–38, we developed a simple framework we called “Pray for B.O.B.” — Burden, Opportunity, Boldness. When Jesus saw the crowds, He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. That’s burden. So we began asking: What do you feel when you see a crowd? Indifference? Annoyance? Distraction? Or compassion?
Prayer asks God to give us eyes to see the reality around us and hearts that break over it.
Opportunity flows naturally from burden. Jesus says the problem is not the harvest; it is the workers. There are more people ready to hear than there are laborers ready to speak. So, we prayed specifically for opportunities to step into conversations God was already orchestrating. And when opportunity appeared, we prayed for boldness. As Matthew 9 flows into Matthew 10, Jesus sent His disciples out and commanded them not to fear those who can kill the body but not the soul.
Burden awakens us. Opportunity surrounds us. Boldness moves us.
- Invest: Build Genuine Relationships
Evangelism is relational before it is verbal. We trained students to be relatable, accessible, and available. Relatable means doing what you genuinely enjoy rather than adopting artificial strategies. One student struggled to connect with nonbelievers because he was forcing himself into environments that weren’t natural for him. When he returned to the simple activities that had always built friendships in his life, meaningful relationships followed.
Accessible means refusing closed circles. Our friend groups needed to look like horseshoes, not tight circles. If someone has to ask permission to bring a friend, you’ve unintentionally created an insider culture.
Available means rethinking our schedules. If you are on campus ministry staff and cannot schedule one gospel appointment a week, something is misaligned. We are missionaries. Availability signals priority.
- Share: Clearly Proclaim the Gospel
Romans 10 makes it plain: people must hear. We trained our students in a simple gospel tool, Three Circles, and stayed with it. We resisted the temptation to introduce new tools constantly. Clarity builds confidence. When students understood how to articulate the gospel simply and faithfully, conversations multiplied.
Pick a gospel tool, equip students to use it, then encourage them to share the gospel!
- Read: Open Scripture Together
We began asking nonbelieving students a straightforward question: “Would you read the Bible with me?” Many said yes. We walked through the seven signs in the Gospel of John, passages written so that people might believe. There is something powerful about opening Scripture together. The Word does its work.
- Establish: Disciple the New Believer
When someone comes to Christ, you’ve been entrusted with a spiritual newborn. The early days matter. We equipped students with a basic discipleship pathway that included Bible reading, prayer, community, and obedience.
Pray. Invest. Share. Read. Establish. The simplicity made it repeatable.
The Principles: How to Build Momentum
- It StartswithYou
Your students will not go where you have not been. I adopted the mindset of a militia leader, not barking orders from a distance, but on the front lines. That meant committing to one gospel appointment every week, bringing students with me into those conversations, and hosting regular gatherings in my home where relationships could deepen.
One group of 10 nonbelieving athletes came to monthly poker nights. Over three years, I shared the gospel with seven of them, and five surrendered their lives to Christ. One of them, Alex, took two years before any spiritual traction appeared. Then one lunch shifted everything. After weeks of reading through John together, he surrendered his life to Christ in my basement.
You must model it.
- Make Evangelism a Focused Priority
To cultivate an evangelistic culture, we had to focus relentlessly. Evangelism became central in leader trainings, discipleship groups, and sermon series. And we saw multiplication. One student led another to Christ. That new believer led someone else the next week. That pattern continued until every single week a student was leading another student to Christ. By the end of that semester, 37 students had surrendered to Christ through one-on-one evangelism.
Culture changed because priority shifted.
- Keep the Method Simple
Momentum stalls when complexity increases. We kept returning to the same five steps: Pray. Invest. Share. Read. Establish. That consistency builds confidence and sustainability.
- Build Grace-Based Accountability
In discipleship groups, we asked honest questions about evangelism. Not to shame, but to shepherd. One student confessed he had never shared the gospel in two years of leadership. Instead of rebuke, he received support. That semester he shared his faith with five classmates. Evangelism is a discipleship issue, and accountability must be fueled by grace.
- Celebrate Everything
We celebrated conversions loudly, literally with an air horn students could blow. But we also celebrated faithfulness: texts sent, prayers prayed, and courage attempted. Over time, 174 students surrendered to Christ through one-on-one evangelism, and 193 were baptized. The numbers mattered, but the joy mattered more.
Faithless, Yet He Remains Faithful
Second Timothy 2 closes with a reminder: “If we are faithless, He remains faithful.” There were moments I failed—names I prayed for but never pursued. Yet God continued working. Years ago, a church planter knocked on my great-grandfather’s door and faithfully shared the gospel. Five generations later, I stand here because someone was obedient.
God invites us into that same joy—the joy of partnering with Him in His mission. When we walk in obedience, even imperfect obedience, He uses it. And decades from now, someone may look back and say, “Everything changed when that ministry came to campus.”
That is the momentum He invites us to build.
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Adapted from the Collegiate Coaching Network. Learn more about our Collegiate Coaching Network and sign up for the next cohort.
Published March 5, 2026
